RE: The Daily Meme #695!

as if we have lost all our rites of passage to adulthood.

We did. There is nothing in terms of hardship and endurance favored in modern societies. Everything has to be easy and pain free. I believed for a long time that this ought to be the case. But I was wrong. Entering adulthood must come with risk, pain and the success of having felt hurt and anxiety in order to be prepared for similar happenings.
In small tribal cultures, so the assumption goes, those who belonged to the tribe had a clear identity. But at the same time, this prevented them from breaking away and questioning it. The multitude of coexisting identity groups in peaceful coexistence probably only lasted as long as the peace was not disturbed. But where the respective rites of passage from childhood to adulthood diverged greatly, turbulence and conflict as well as war would have ensued. Nevertheless, I believe that the mixing of peoples also took place in tribal cultures and was recognised as necessary. Something like trade in food and valuable goods will also have taken place among the early peoples, I think.

When our first lesson in life is 'do what you are told, or consequences', we too often begin to wait our turn to dish out our own version of consequences.

That is probably so. It's better to undergo some risks while still at young age and having been able to break rules without being caught in doing so. This may prevent the individual to be too resentful towards others when breaking rules becomes the main focus.